In the Beginning S4
by Bad Day at Black Rock
Summary: Dean and Kayla are sent back to discover some shocking family secrets.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: These fics are based on real episodes from Supernatural. The characters and plots belong to the creator and writers for the show. If you want background on the new character you can read the previous episodes.

In The Beginning

"Sweetheart for the love of God, stop taking pictures."

"No." She responded from behind the camera lens before the light flashed again.

He smiled. "Come here."

"You just couldn't smile for the picture could you? It would kill you."

"Hey, stranger things have happened."

She adjusted the zoom and raised the camera again. "Please smile."

"No, stop taking pictures and come here."

Kayla pouted lightly. "I said please."

"Come here, please."

She sighed and walked over to him, she set the camera on the table and sat down. Dean slid an arm around her.

"I know, you don't think you have enough pictures. But you won't need them, because I'm not going anywhere."

"Gee, where have I heard that before?"

They had enjoyed a short break after the mess with the witnesses and they took some down time to relax. This of course was short lived.

Late that night Kayla found herself waking suddenly and she realized she had heard the sound of the door shutting. Dean was still asleep next to her and she looked over to see Sam's bed empty. Before he could get far she quietly went outside.

"Sam."

He turned and stepped back from the street, acting like this was completely normal. "Hey, I didn't want to wake you."

"I'm really starting to not like this."

He sighed. "What?"

"If you have to sneak around and lie about it, it's probably wrong."

"It's not wrong to harness this, it'll help us. It already has."

"Then tell Dean."

"He's not going to understand and you know that."

So she'd speak for him, she knew exactly what he'd say. "I just don't know what Ruby's intentions are, I don't know if you can trust her."

They both turned when Ruby pulled up to the curb.

"Sam, I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I won't." He hugged her but there was nothing behind it; like it was something he felt he _should_ do. "I'll see you later." He walked around to the passenger side.

But she couldn't do it. She couldn't hide this from Dean, he had earned the truth from them. "I'm not going to keep lying to him Sam." Her intentions were clear in her tone.

"Fine." He sounded angry but motioned for Ruby to drive. As she pulled away Kayla could have sworn she smirked at her.

She went back into the room and was startled to see someone sitting at the edge of the bed. "Castiel."

"I'm glad you've decided to tell him, but there's something he needs to do first, and I think you can help him. I think you help him more than the others realize."

Dean started to stir and he opened his eyes. Getting that, 'you're being watched' feeling, he sat up and saw Castiel sitting on the bed while Kayla stood by the door. He looked confused but annoyed at the same time. He had a feeling this kind of thing was about to get commonplace. "What the hell."

"Dean listen to me, you have to stop it."

"Stop what?"

He reached out and touched their foreheads; they blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

"Watch it!" A man shoved hard against Dean as he passed him on the sidewalk, they both turned to look at him but he just kept walking.

Kayla looked around, Castiel had apparently whipped up a location change for them and they stood on the side of a small town street. There was a diner across the street, Dean looked at her.

"I love a good cheap diner."

"We might as well get some coffee before we start shooting in the dark about what you're supposed to be stopping."

It was definitely Dean's kind of diner; quiet place with _Ramblin'_ _Man_ playing softly overhead. They sat down at the counter and Dean rubbed his eyes. He couldn't believe he got woken up for this crap.

He turned to the man next to him. "Hey could you tell me where we are?"

"Jaybird's Diner."

"Yeah, thanks. I mean city and state."

Kayla leaned forward before he could sound too crazy, or drunk. "We're traveling, just drove all night."

The guy nodded with a smile. "Lawrence, Kansas."

"Lawrence." He looked at Kayla.

Maybe this was worth getting up for. She flagged down the waiter for some coffee, he was dressed in some hippie jumpsuit with a fur vest.

Dean slid his coffee to him. "Thanks, nice threads. You know Sonny and Cher broke up right?"

"Sonny and Cher broke up?" The guy next to him asked, and he was dead serious.

Kayla then took the time to notice their surroundings. The long hair, handlebar mustaches, the music…

Dean looked at the paper the guy was reading. The date clearly said 1973. Holy hell.

"Hey Winchester!" Dean and the guy next to him turned to the man walking towards them.

"Hey good to see you." He walked by Dean and shook hands with the guy next to him. "Great to have you home John."

"Dad." Dean whispered under his breath.

"Yeah, thanks. Great to be back."

"Tell your dad I said hi."

"Will do." He glanced to Dean.

Kayla nudged him and he stopped staring at him, he looked into his coffee cup. "That's…"

"I know."

"You guys take it easy." John put a bill on the counter and walked out.

Dean took another swig of his coffee. "Let's follow him. We'll start with that."

Once they took the first corner they were face to face with Castiel.

"What is this?" Dean asked.

"What does it look like?"

"Is it real?"

"Very."

"Ok so the angels got their hands on some Deloreans? How did we get here?"

"Time is fluid, it's not easy but we can bend it on occasion."

"Well bend it back, or tell me what the hell I'm doing here."

"I told you. You have to stop it."

"Stop _what?_ Is there something nasty after my dad?" They turned towards the sound of screeching tires, when they turned back, he was gone.

"He's very cryptic."

Dean shook his head. "No, I'm sticking with pain in my ass."


	3. Chapter 3

Without any answers to their questions they continued following John. Kayla had waited in the (stolen) car, watching in soft adoration as Dean convinced his dad to buy the Impala over a van in a small car lot. He actually succeeded and they got to see the car's legend begin, it was incredibly surreal.

Later that afternoon he stopped in front of a house and a young girl with wavy blonde hair ran out to meet him. She looked confused by the car he stood in front of.

"What's this?"

"My car."

"What happened to the van?"

"Mary this is better than the van."

"Oh my God Dean that's your mom!" Kayla blurted in excitement. He finally got to see his mom, whether she knew her son or not.

John was picking her up for a date and they followed them to dinner, then proceeded to watch from outside like crazy stalkers. It was still awesome to see them like this.

"Sam, wherever you are, mom's a babe." He smirked at Kayla. "I know, I'm going to hell. Again."

"_Not_ funny." She looked in the window. "They're so cute, look how in love they are."

"Yeah." Mary got up and excused herself from the table, within minutes she caught them off guard in the alley.

"Why are you following us?"

They turned, Dean cleared his throat. "What? We're not…" She attacked him and he grabbed her, pinning her to the wall. "Let's just talk about this."

"Dean, her bracelet."

He looked at the silver bracelet on her wrist, a charm bracelets with some very familiar charms. He let go of her and looked shocked. "Are you a hunter?"

She didn't respond, just stepped away from him but kept her eyes between them.

Kayla held a hand up. "It's okay, we're hunters too. We just, we got this job all wrong. This is a misunderstanding."

"You're hunters?"

"I'm Dean. This is Kayla, look, we don't have to freak him out about this. You finish your dinner and we'll meet you back at your place. We can talk."

She looked unsure but nodded. They'd be stupid to try anything at her house anyway, her father would kill them.


	4. Chapter 4

They waited until John had left in the Impala to come out from the side of her house. She looked more confident now and looked them over.

"I'm not sure you should come in."

"You can trust us." Dean assured. "I mean come on, we're all hunters right? I mean, we're practically family." He smiled at his own joke.

"Yeah, the thing is, my dad. He's a little…"

"Oh I gotta meet him." He said quickly.

"You've heard of him?"

"Clearly not enough." He grinned to Kayla as she led them in.

"Dad?" They found him in his study reading a book. "Dad, this is um, Dean and Kayla. They're hunters."

He didn't even look at them. "Hunters huh?" He glanced to Dean. "Tell me something Mr. Hunter, do you kill vampires with silver or a wooden stake?"

"Neither." He smirked. "You cut their heads off. Did I pass your test?"

"Yep. He closed the book. "Now get out of my house."

"Dad."

"I don't trust other hunters. Don't want their help, don't want them around my family."

"Knock it off Samuel." A woman walked into the room, presumably his wife.

"They're hunters."

"And your little pop quiz has been passed so now I'm inviting them to dinner, are you hungry?"

Kayla smiled.

"Starving."

"Good. I'm Deanna, you've met my husband Samuel." She shook their hands and went back to set the table.

Dean paused. "Samuel and…Deanna?"

"Yep." Mary nodded.

"Really." He raised an eyebrow at Kayla, he couldn't believe dad never told them who they were named after.

Dinner was pleasant, very pleasant for a bunch of hunters in fact.

"So, is this your first time in Lawrence?"

"Well, it's been awhile."

"You seem kind of quiet for a hunter." Samuel mentioned to Kayla.

She shrugged. "No, sorry. I'm really not. I just um, I'm surprised. I didn't know there were hunters in Lawrence."

"Are you working a job?"

"Yeah, maybe." Dean interrupted.

He looked at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I don't trust other hunters either Samuel."

He looked at him a moment and just barely smiled, Kayla knew he liked him.

"So why were you following us?"

"I thought something might be after your boyfriend, I don't think that now."

"John Winchester mixing it up with spirits." Deanna said jokingly. "Can you imagine?"

"I saw that." Mary turned to her father.

"What?"

"That, sour lemon look."

"Hold on. John's a really, really nice…naïve civilian."

They tried not to laugh.

"What, you'd rather me be with a guy like this?"

"Of course not, it's just that…"

"That's enough, both of you." Deanna cut them off. "We have company."

"Of course." Samuel nodded. "Tell me Kayla, you hunt full time?"

She saw Mary roll her eyes. "Um, yeah, pretty much."

"Do you _like_ being a hunter?"

"It's a living." She hesitated but could only come up with the standard answer. "It's kind of hard not to, once you know the truth."

Before she had to hear a _You should like the family business _speech from her father, Mary turned the conversation. "Why don't you tell them about the job you're working on the Whitshire Farm dad?"

He shot her a look.

"Whitshire, why does that sound familiar?" Dean stopped, trying to remember the passage from dad's journal.

"It's been all over the papers, Tom Whitshire got caught up in a combine a few counties over."

"Those things happen."

"Except why was he on it in the first place, when his crops were all dead?"

Kayla perked up. "You think the dead land is a demonic omen?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out."

"What about electrical storms in the area?" She continued.

Deanna nodded. "We think so, the weather graphs should be here by Friday."

By mail, of course. Because there was no internet, there was no e-mail or fax machines.

Dean was piecing this together. "I think we might be hunting the same thing here. We could go in and take this out nice and quick."

"What part of we work alone do you not understand Dean?"


	5. Chapter 5

The next day they set out to question Tom Whitshire's wife, playing from the comforting religious standpoint.

"Can you believe all this Dean? Your mom was a hunter, and your grandparents! I can't believe your dad never told you."

"I know, it's crazy. But dad didn't start hunting until after mom died."

"You think he didn't know?"

"Maybe, but how could he not know? They were married."

She smiled a little; that was awful traditional thinking for Dean Winchester.

"You ready for this?" He parked in the driveway and adjusted his collar.

"You know that getup makes me want to go all Catholic School Girl on you."

"Mm." He tilted his head, letting the image run though his mind. "Catholic school girl later, right now you have to be the preacher's wife."

She smirked and got out of the car. "Can do, Father."

Dean knocked quietly on the door, a distressed looking woman came to answer and offered a weak smile.

"Can I help you?"

"Mam I'm Father Tyler, this is my wife…" he paused, realizing how strange that sounded coming out of his mouth. "We'd like to offer our deepest condolences on the loss of your husband."

"I'm so sick of this crap!" A young voice came from behind her and pushed past them out into the front yard.

"You'll have to forgive Charlie, he's still emotional."

"Of course."

"Would you like me to speak with him?" Kayla smiled. "Sometimes it's easier, talking with someone who's not part of the situation."

The woman nodded. "If he'll talk to you, that'd be wonderful. I'm so worried about him."

Kayla smiled and went out into the yard where he was sitting against a tree. "Charlie?"

He looked up and quickly stood, brushing the dirt off his hands. "I don't need to talk to anyone."

"Are you sure?" She smiled softly. "It doesn't have to be anything I tell your mom, sometimes it just feels better to talk about what's on your mind."

He grimaced and thought for a moment. His eyes focused on some rocks on the ground. "Everyone's been by here, telling us how sorry they are, how great dad was…and I don't even know if I should miss him."

"Why's that?"

"I don't know." He said reluctantly. "I just…" He gave one of those sighs, the kind that said he was tired of keeping everything in. "Dad drank sometimes. He'd get rough with mom, if I stepped in he'd turn on me too."

"That must have been hard on you."

"But I didn't mean for him to die!"

She looked at him. "Charlie, do you know something about your dad's death?"

He looked nervous all of a sudden, guilty. "This guy came by the house one night. I didn't think much of him except that he was crazy, he asked me if I wanted the beatings to stop."

"Did he say how he was going to do that?" This was starting to sound like a crossroads deal.

"No, he just said he'd make them stop. The next thing I know…dad's dead. Am I going to jail?"

"Of course not, you didn't do anything wrong. Now, this man, did he say he wanted something in return?"

"No, well, he said something about coming to call in ten years."

"Yeah?" Definitely a deal, but with a demon he didn't summon? "Do you remember what he looked like?"

Charlie shrugged. "Just an ordinary guy really. There was just this one thing…I could have sworn, when the light hit him just right, this is going to sound crazy."

She smiled reassuringly. "It's not crazy Charlie, it's ok."

"It was his eyes. They looked…"

"Black?" She offered.

"Yellow. They looked yellow."

Azazel. This was it, they were supposed to stop yellow eyes from doing something in the past. They could stop everything.

"Hey."

Kayla turned towards the voice and saw Mary, her father's car was in the driveway. She glanced back towards Charlie. "Thank you for speaking with me Charlie, this wasn't your fault I promise." She walked over to her, making sure she was out of earshot.

"So what angle did you guys take?"

"Preacher, you know, counseling and all."

"Well." She laughed and looked at the front door. "That should be nice and awkward for them, my dad did too. The kid have anything good?"

"Yeah, actually. He made a deal with a demon to kill his dad because he was abusive. He didn't realize that's what he was doing of course, he didn't actually tell it to kill him. That's just how their minds work."

"Wow."

Kayla watched her for a moment. "Hey can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"This whole, family hunting thing you have going on. You don't like it?"

"Are you kidding me I hate it." She quickly answered. "Not, to be rude or anything if you enjoy doing it that's fine, I see the allure. We _are_ helping people and while I'm still young, fine. But this isn't what I want my whole life to be."

"I can understand that."

"I just, I want to be normal. I want to get married and have kids and take them to soccer practice and just…be happy. I don't want to chase down vampires and ghosts and demons, and I certainly don't want my kids involved in it. I mean, I don't know if you plan on having kids but…would you really want them to be raised like this?"

Kayla shook her head. "No, I wouldn't. Are you going to tell John about your family being hunters?"

"I don't know." She had clearly already thought about it and was distressed over the decision. "Should I?"

"What's the scoop?" Dean came up behind them.

Kayla turned to him. "This is what we came here for, Dean, it's Azazel."


	6. Chapter 6

Dean's grandfather was fairly convinced that they were crazy when they started explaining the yellow eyed demon, he was absolutely convinced when they told him the colt was real and they knew where it was. Knowing that convincing them otherwise was not only pointless but dangerous for them, Dean and Kayla decided to go after it themselves.

Kayla leaned against the doorframe while Dean walked into the study. "Hey, we're heading out. Thought I'd say goodbye."

"So soon?" She stood up.

"Yeah, job to do. I wanted to tell you, for what it's worth, it doesn't matter what your dad says. I like that John kid."

She laughed. "You do?"

"Yeah, I think you two were meant to be. Hell I'm depending on it." He muttered.

"What?"

"Can I just ask, out of sheer curiosity, what's he like? John."

"I don't know." She smiled that smile again. "He's sweet, kind. Even after the war, after everything he still believes in happily ever after you know? He's everything a hunter isn't. No offense."

"None taken."

"Can I tell you guys something?" She motioned Kayla into the room so she could lower her voice. "He's gonna ask me to marry him, tomorrow I think!" She was so excited, beyond herself even.

"Yeah?" Dean smiled.

"Dad's gonna explode. But I don't care, I'll run away if I have to. I love John. And I want to get out. This job, this life, I hate it. I want a family, I want to be safe. That's why," she glanced to Kayla. "That why I haven't told him. I don't want him to be a part of this. You know what the worst thing I can think of is? The very worst thing? Is for my children to be raised into this like I was."

Dean bit back the tears; mom never wanted this for them, she never wanted this life and they had done everything she was afraid of.

"I don't know how long you guys have been hunting but if you're going to have kids, you know, someday…stop hunting first. Don't drag them into it."

He nodded and his voice trembled when he spoke. "Can I tell you something? Even if it sounds really weird, just promise you'll remember."

"Okay."

"On November 2nd, 1983, don't get out of bed." He shook his head. "No matter what you hear, or what you see, promise me you won't get out of bed."

She looked at him for a moment, whether he was crazy or not was beside the point, he was dead serious. "Okay."

Kayla followed him back to the car. "Hey."

He wiped his eyes and turned to face her. "We did everything wrong. Everything mom wanted for us, we did wrong. We're everything she hates."

"I don't think she'd be disappointed. You couldn't help this Dean, you didn't know. John didn't know."

"Well we know now." _And we can fix it._

They weren't ten minutes down the road when Cas showed up in the back seat, nearly making him veer off the road.

Kayla gasped quietly and caught her breath. "Could you wear a bell or something?"

Dean glanced back. "Sam would have wanted in on this, why not bring him back?"

"I have my reasons."

"If I do this, then the family curse breaks right? Mom and dad live happily ever after, Sam and I grow up playing little league and chasing tail?"

"You realize," he leaned forward. "If you alter the future, you, Sam, your father, you never become hunters. All the people you saved will die."

"I'm aware."

"You'll never meet Kayla."

"Sure I will." He commented. "I just gotta track her down, sweep her off her feet again." No one said anything. "Look, this is my family, my parents. Kayla you understand that, if you never met me your parents would still be alive don't tell me you haven't thought about that."

"I'm not arguing with you Dean."

"I can't let them die again, not if I can stop it." When he went to look at him again Castiel was gone. "We'll still meet."

Kayla nodded but didn't respond.

"Hey." He waited for her to look at him. "If we're destined to be together we'll be together."

"You don't believe in destiny." She pointed out.

"Well, you're changing my mind."


	7. Chapter 7

They did a lot of driving. They went to the cabin and stole the Colt, well, the guy let them borrow it really. By the time they made it back to the Walsch residence where yellow eyes was supposed to be that night, Samuel and Mary were already there. Guess they didn't think they were too crazy after all.

Dean ran ahead and saw Azazel had Mary by the throat. He raised the colt. "Let her go!"

He smirked, but it quickly faded when he recognized the gun. "Where'd you get that gun?" He stepped back and the demon flooded out of him.

He missed the shot. Again. He missed the damn shot. Mary ran outside.

"Are you okay?" Kayla gave her a once over, looking for bleeding.

"If that's what you want to call it! That demon had yellow eyes, you guys were right."

"What did he tell you?" Dean was coming off the porch.

"He said…he said he liked me." She went pale. "What does that mean?"

Her dad was coming out as well. "Lydie's a strong kid, she'll be ok. Are you alright?"

"No dad! I'm pretty far from alright! Can we go?" She stormed to the car.

"Nice job in there." He told Dean.

"I missed the shot."

"Take the compliment son, I'm saying I was wrong about you."

"We need to talk."

Back at their house, Dean decided to come clean about everything to Samuel. "This is gonna sound, well, massively insane."

"Okay." He was open to discussion. Finally.

"Mary, is my mother. And I am your grandson."

"You wanna run that one by me again son?"

"My real name is Dean Winchester. I was born January 24th, 1979. My parents are John and Mary Winchester."

"I don't have to listen to this."

"Mary gets killed by a yellow eyed demon in 1983. And I think that this, whatever happened tonight is the moment the demon caught her scent. If we don't catch this thing now and kill it, and it gets away, then Mary dies."

"I know how it sounds." Kayla said. "But this is legitimate, and we have to act fast."

"Every bone in my body is telling me to bury you kids but…there's something about you." He said to Dean. "And I can't shake it. I may be crazier than you son but I believe you. How do we find this bastard?"

"Right here." He set John's journal on the table. "The list."

"And you've got the colt?"

He took it out. "Right here."

"Here let me see it."

Dean set his hand on it, then slid it further away. "I don't let anyone hold it. Nothing personal."

"Sure it is. Especially when it's me you're trying to kill." His eyes turned yellow and he threw them across the room before standing, completely calm. "From the future huh? I only know one thing that can swing that kind of thing, you must have friends in high places."

Dean just glared at him. So close to him and he couldn't rip his throat out.

"So I kill your mommy? Is that why you came all this way to see little ole me?"

"I'm here to kill you."

"Hey," he looked excited for a moment. "If that slut Mary is your mommy, are you one of my psychic kids?" He leaned in and inhaled deeply. "No, not you. But maybe you got a sis, or a bro, that's terrific. Means it all worked out, after all that's why I'm here."


	8. Chapter 8

How the hell were they gonna stop this thing now? He was already steps ahead of them, they were powerless without the colt in hand. Not to mention his high and mighty monologuing was getting old and not providing any useful information.

"Listen here you son of a bitch." Dean spit at him. "It may not be today, but look into my eyes you bastard. Because I'm the one who kills you."

He looked at him, then smiled. "You're just gonna save everyone huh? Is that it? Well there's one person you're not gonna save. Your grandpappy." He pulled out a knife and drove it into his stomach.

A woman's scream was heard from the dining room and Deanna ran for the colt, only to be slung across the room. Azazel calmly went into the kitchen, they could hear her neck snap and moments later the hold on them stopped. They knew it was too late, he was already gone.

"We've got to find Mary." Dean grabbed the colt.

He drove as fast as that cheap car would go which in these times wasn't saying much. When they finally found Mary…she was kissing Azazel. Locking the deal.

"No!" He jumped out of the car, colt cocked and ready but the demon streamed out of him. They didn't stop it. The deal still held. Castiel appeared behind them and touched their shoulders.

They woke up back in the motel, still nighttime, like no time had passed at all. Dean sat up, furious with himself.

"We couldn't stop it. She still made the deal, and she still died in the nursery didn't she?"

"Don't be so hard on yourself." Castiel turned to them. "You couldn't have stopped it. Destiny can't be changed Dean, all roads lead to the same destination."

"Then why send us back?"

"For the truth, now you know everything we do."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

He motioned to Sam's empty bed and looked at Kayla, she knew. "I believe you had something you were going to tell him?"

"Kayla?"

She hated being the one to do this. She wished Sam would have manned up.

"Where is he?"

"He's with Ruby."

"Ruby? He told me that bitch was dead."

"She's not, she's been training him. He's been using his psychic thing to fight demons."

"What?" He was livid. "I told him, you _heard_ me tell him I didn't want this!"

"I know."

"Why wouldn't you stop him?!" He yelled.

"He's using it to kill demons, I've seen him do it, he's not using it for bad."

"You'll find him on 425 Waterman. Make no mistake Kayla, Sam is on a dangerous path and we're not sure where it leads. So stop it, or we will."

They both looked at him.

"Good luck."

Kayla followed him out to the car, she wasn't yet prepared for fight.

"Why would you keep this from me?" He spun the tires out of the lot.

"Sam said he would tell you, he wanted to tell you himself."

"But you were gonna tell me anyway right?" He wanted to believe her.

"Yeah, tonight, I saw him leave. I told him I was going to tell you then Castiel showed up and zapped us out of here. I'm sorry Dean."

He shook his head. "You should have told me."

"I know. He just…I'm not trying to defend him, ok maybe a little but he thinks…he thinks if he would have trained with her earlier he could have saved you. He could have kept you from going to hell."

"But now I'm back. So what's his excuse now?"

She shrugged. "My guess, he still wants to kill Lilith."

He was so angry he could hardly think straight. But he knew this wasn't her fault. "I didn't mean to yell at you." He believed her, he believed that Sam flashed those puppy dog eyes and told her he'd tell him himself. Probably gave her some, _when I find the right words_ line and she bought right into it. What the hell was wrong with that kid?

"I should have told you from the beginning."

"No, _he_ should have told me from the beginning. I asked him and he flat out lied to me."

"He thinks he's doing it for good, just, think about that before you scream at him."

He gripped the steering wheel and nodded; she could try but it wasn't going to calm him down.


End file.
